Angle 5: Traditional vs. Simplified Chinese Characters

In the 1950s, the government of Mainland China "simplified" the written
forms of many "traditional" characters in order to make learning
to read and write the language easier for its then largely illiterate population.

Simplified characters may or may not be less pleasant to look at; however,
the simplification project did succeed in making a more literate society. Whatever
your opinion of outcome, this historical fact means we now have in print and on
the Internet two sets of Chinese characters to deal with.

NOTE

Traditional characters are called
(fàn tĭ zì). Simplified ones are know as
(jĭan tĭ zì).
"zì" itself means "character" or "writing,"
and written Chinese is called (hàn zì). Since
(hàn) is the
ethnic majority of China, (hàn zì) is
literally "Writing of the Han People." Note that the Japanese
pronunciation of (hàn zì) is
kanji.

Limiting yourself to just one set can be too, well, limiting. Just as you
should become familiar with more than one system for romanizing Chinese
pronunciation, learning both traditional and simplified characters will
open up that many more resources for you. A good plan might be learning
to read both sets, while focusing your writing efforts on just one at first.

NOTE

Characters have been simplifying, evolving, or de-evolving as long as there
have been characters. Korea and Japan adopted Chinese characters along the
way, and some of the older forms they borrowed and still use have long since
disappeared from use in China and Taiwan.

Keep in mind too that not every character has been simplified, only
some of the more complicated forms. Plus, this simplification of characters did
follow some logical principles. Therefore, learning simplified characters alongside
their traditional counterparts is not too difficult. For comparison, here is a
list of examples. Traditional forms are on the left, followed by their simplified
forms, pinyin pronunciation, and English equivalents.

With
the exception of the simplified character examples shown here, traditional characters
are used throughout the rest of this site for two reasons.

First, Mainland
China interacts more all the time with other Chinese-speaking regions where only
traditional forms are used. As a result, Mainland Chinese professionals are increasingly
willing and able to work with traditional characters, or fàn tĭ zì.

Second, they just look a heckuvalot nicer, don't they?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

A note on learning traditional and simplified characters
together: In certain border areas of Mainland China, people can pick up
television signals from other Chinese-speaking regions, where all programs
have have traditional character subtitling. In these areas, people have
learned to recognize, and sometimes to write,
(fàn tĭ zì).

Yes, there are official censor signal-blocking waves in
place, but these mostly provide good small business opportunities for those
who can hotwire TV sets to bypass them. If Mainland China ever wonders how
it could switch back to traditional characters, there's my suggestion: Start
with the TV.